BROTHERS FOUR FAIL TO INSPIRE

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 18

BROTHERS FOUR FAIL TO INSPIRE

"With a song like this you know that you’ve been had.” So sang the Brothers Four, paraphrasing the Beatles, in the last number of their concert at the Civic Theatre last evening. Anyone who went under the impression that the

“•folksingers” would sing folk songs very likely felt like quoting the Beatles, too—- “ Yeah, yeah, yeah." The group’s singing was pleasant, but its material very rarely rose above the mediocre. The humorous items were excellent but only two more serious songs, “Shenandoah”—one of only two folk songs—and “Come To My Bedside” made any impact The songs included some pop numbers, such as “Norwegian Wood,” but the attempt to fit them into the group’s homogenous style took away much of the somewhat limited effect these songs have.

The bulk of the programme could be classed as that sort of music that masquerades as “folk music” in the record industry but owes little if anything to folk song in its style or content

The whole affair was unobjectionable but uninspiring.